Conflict In Shakespeare's Time

The following sample essay on “Conflict In Shakespeare’s Time”: in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ there is a lot of excitement mainly created by conflict, which builds tension. Two characters which create a lot of this tension because of their personalities and differences, are Mercutio and Tybalt. Tybalt is in the first scene which involves conflict. They meet in Act 3 Scene 1, which coincidently is a fight scene between them, but they are introduced to the audience separately earlier on in the play.

It is noticeable how much contrast there is between them. This contrast may excite the audience because in Shakespearian times conflict would exhilarate and fascinate the audience, along with love and tragedy.

When Mercutio is first introduced he is aggravating Romeo about love. It is a light-hearted scene which may relax the audience and also make them laugh. The things he says to Romeo may make sense though. For Example “If love be rough with you, be rough with love:…”.

He could possibly be saying this to cheer Romeo up. Even though he is very good friends with Romeo, Mercutio creates a juxtapose with Romeo as he believes in lust rather than true love. To exemplify this “… oh save-your-reverence love…” He is a kinsman to the Prince and also a friend of Romeo. He is the main comic character with phrases, such as, “More than Prince of cats…” but his words sometimes get him into trouble especially in Act 3 Scene 1.

Nobody takes him seriously even if he is being serious.

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To exemplify this, when he gets stabbed Romeo says “…the hurt cannot be much.”. To which Mercutio replies “… ’tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door, but ’tis enough, ’twill serve.” Mercutio likes to attract the attention to himself rather than it being on the other characters in the scene. He tends to get the audiences attention by saying outrageous poems riddles and puns. This focuses the attention on him as the audience have to listen carefully to what he is saying. He is also very outspoken, loud and rude which is also shown by his body language. He even says “…hide her face; for her fan’s the fairer face…”about Juliet’s nurse, when he first meets her, which is very disrespectful. In his first scene he is talking about “queen Mab” an imagery character of the time, but he is using her in context which disrespects Religion.

An example of this is “…over men’s noses as they sleep…” even though religion was a very important issue. Tybalt is very different to Mercutio. Tybalt is a nephew of Lady Capulet, therefore making him Juliet’s cousin. He is used to create one of the main stimuli, conflict. We meet him in the very first scene where his first words are quite aggressive. “… look upon thy death”. Also in the same scene he makes his views on making peace with the Montagues very clear. He seems to be the only person whose words show how much hatred there is between the two families. “… peace. I hate the word” He is always willing to fight and is very confrontational especially when he talks about the Montagues. For Example “…as I hate hell, all Montagues, and…”

He also gets told not to fight the Montagues in the party scene. But he does have a right to object to object to Romeos presence. If Romeo had not been at the party he would not of met Juliet so there would have been no tragic end. Also Act Three Scene 1 would not of happened because Tybalt would not have been looking for Romeo. So this means that Act 1 Scene 4 is a catalytic scene. Lord Capulet, describes Tybalt as being a “…princox”. He also seems quite vindictive, describing Romeo as “…that villain…”. This may mean he has a higher opinion of himself than other characters, especially Romeo, even though Romeo is not much younger than him. Tybalt has a different opinion to life than Mercutio, this also gives a contrast. Mercutio seems to be very carefree, and tends to say what he thinks, “…hide her face; for her fan’s the fairer face…”.

This may get him into trouble, but he does not let this bother him whereas Tybalt is a lot more serious. Such as when he says “… by the stock and honour of my kin…”. They may have these opposing views because Mercutio is neither Capulet or Montague so he does not have to fight for his family honour. The two characters meet in Act 3 Scene 1. It is a tongue in cheek scene which has a lot of action. This is a fight scene with a lot of conflict, both physical and verbal. Mercutio is very irritable at the start of the scene and is agitating the other characters. He also has a large passage, which, like his earlier scenes, focuses the audiences attention on him. It starts with Mercutio making jovial retorts about Capulets. When told that a group of Capulets are approaching he replies “…I care not”.

He is trying to impress the people around him. He does this by making fun of what Tybalt says. To Exemplify this, Tybalt asks for a “word” but Mercutio replies “…couple it with something, make it a word and a blow”. This may spark off anger in Tybalt because he is being made to look the fool. The language they both use is quite sharp. Mercutio has a clever comeback for when Tybalt asks or says anything. For Instance Mercutio’s response to Tybalt is “…what dost thou make us minstrels…” Neither of them want to be humiliated by the other especially in front of the other men. But is Mercutio better with words or with a sword? This is questionable because after their exchange pf words Mercutio and Tybalt start play fighting with their swords, mainly showing off their skills.

This gets juxtaposed when Mercutio accidentally gets stabbed because the scene goes from a light-hearted and jolly scene to a serious scene. The Montagues who he is with don’t believe he is hurt as they think he is joking due to his earthy sense of humour. For Example “…the hurt cannot be much.” There is a big impact when Romeo realises Mercutio is dead because he hadn’t believed him at first. If he had believed him, the scene wouldn’t have had such excitement because it wouldn’t have been so shocking. This is because the audience now realise how much affection Romeo has for Mercutio. This is shown when Romeo says “My very friend hath got this mortal hurt…”. It creates pathos because the event triggers sympathy in the audience. Shakespeare has dragged out Mercutio’s death for as a long as possible to crate this feeling within the audience.

There is a lot of dramatic irony in the scene when Romeo enters. The audience know Romeo doesn’t want Tybalt hurt because he is Juliet’s cousin. This is emphasised by his greeting of “…I have to love thee…” But the others in the scene don’t know this. Romeo and Juliet got married in secret so Romeo has still got the pretence of hating Capulets. He tries to stop the fight between Mercutio and Tybalt by commanding them to stop. His language is very demanding. “… Mercutio, put they rapier up …hold Tybalt…”. He stands between them but Tybalt manages to stab Mercutio through Romeo’s arm. This is exciting because Romeo is put in a compromising position. If he defends his friend and hurts Tybalt, Juliet may not love him any more. But he should defend his life long friend? It is a tough decision. The audience also know that Romeo is strongly against the feud.

If Tybalt hadn’t have been Juliet’s cousin the fight wouldn’t of been so dramatic because it would not have effected either Romeo or Juliet, but the audience would still of been evoked because of the conflict. Anticipation is created when Mercutio gets killed because the audience do not know what Romeo is going to do next. After realising Mercutio is actually dead Romeo chases Tybalt. He ends up killing him. Shakespeare uses the technique of pathos to put the audience on Romeos side. They now know how Romeo feels. He is deeply hurt and guilty because he did not believe Mercutio was seriously hurt. Now he knows Mercutio is hurt he shows his guilt by saying “In my behalf, my reputation stained”. Mercutio blames his death on the feud. I agree with this because if the two families had not been fighting Tybalt would not be looking for Romeo. Also Tybalt would not of been as enraged and angry so he would not of challenged Mercutio.

But Tybalt may have been provoked to stab Mercutio. Now these two characters are dead the audience get excited because they now know that the tragic part of the play may start especially after such a big tragedy. Romeo gets banished away from Verona – as the prince is angry about a killing in the street. But the Prince is also unsure what to do. Mercutio is a kinsman to him and therefore he is very biased towards Romeo who has just defended Mercutio. The audience may now realise that the most jester like character (Mercutio) has now been killed so it is the turning point in the play. The excites the audience further. Up to Mercutio death the play could have been classed as a comedy, but now a tragic conclusion is almost certain. Also Shakespeare may have been trying to get the audience to focus on Romeo and Juliet, as the play is about them and their tragic end.

When Mercutio is dying he uses the phrase ‘… a grave man…” This is more than likely to have impacted the audience because now he is dead. It is very ironic how he is talking about death and then gets killed. Also after Mercutio wishes for “…a plague on both your houses”. There is a plague between Verona and Mantua which prevents the message of Juliet’s fake death getting from Friar Lawrence to Romeo, so therefore Romeo does not know that Juliet is actually alive, causing him to kill himself. So this I another catalytic scene. It may have caused some uneasiness in the audience because in Shakespeare’s times people believed in the afterlife and curses. It would be exciting because they may feel he was doing this from beyond the grave.

Authors and playwrights have to grasp the audience attention to keep them interested in a play. They use many dramatic devises including dramatic irony, pathos (sympathy for the young lovers), juxtaposition (between characters and the families) and many others. When writing Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare’s intention would have been to make the audience excited especially when the play had to be performed. He uses suspense in the form of secrecy and many deaths. Shakespeare also used the three main genres which make a play exciting for an audience. These were conflict, love and tragedy. This may be why Romeo and Juliet was so successful and is so successful now, because the audience are excited about what will happen next or at the end of the play.